DICK CHICKEN PHENOMENA REACHES CULTURAL CLIMAX
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The Dick Chicken phenomena which invaded the consciousness of Williamsburg Brooklyn in 2009 shows no sign of disappearing, but it may of finally reached its cultural climax (we beg you, don't try to picture what that looks like!)
From pop-arty consumer product parodies, to gallery shows in New York and London, a profile in Playboy magazine, a parallel street art development involving a supposed romance with "Pussy Ham", hundreds of drawings and posters spotted not just in NYC but also in Hollywood, Montreal and Chicago, what more could there be to the saga of "Richard Poultry." Perhaps one more milestone, attaining the holy grail of pop culture dick based street art, the inestimably prestigious "Johnson" award.
Each year in late February the members of The Academy of Phallus Defacement and Affrontery Arts and Sciences look back over the year just past with an eye to recognizing outstanding examples of ding-dong based defacement and general dickish-ness in popular culture. Dick Chicken, inexplicably passed over last year, will certainly be on the short list for pop-dickdoms greatest honor this year.
The image of a plucked and prepped chicken body with a engorged penis where the neck and head should be is very arresting (the first several times you see it) and a funny/crazy combo that is hard to forget. These qualities combined with its non-specificity make it an excellent visual and cultural meme that can impart it's rude and irreverent flavor to almost anything that it's associated with. DC makes funny and fast mockery of consumerism, sexual fetishism, processed food, high art, it even feels like it's mocking the very brand-istic street art that brought it into existence. I mean, it's a creepy chicken carcass with a boner attached, but isn't that in some way true of all art speech, humm?
Many excellent articles have been written on DC, there are a huge number of images of the brand/art in all it's forms online, and if you are in NYC just look around for a few minutes and you'll probably see one of them. It really is an impressive body of dick-work, and NYD wishes to thank the creators of Dick Chicken for helping to keep penis based parody alive and throbbing in our society.
From the Street to the Gallery: The Cult of Dick Chicken